The Lion King is one of the greatest animated movies of all time. It's also probably the last fun and memorable Disney movie, at least until Hercules came out in 1997. It's definitely the most nostalgic Disney movie for me apart from The Jungle Book. However you want to put it, I think we can all agree that The Lion King is awesome.
One of the things that I love and appreciate about the movie is how it works on different levels. For kids, it's a fun, enjoyable movie. For adults though it's an epic tale about accepting responsibility and facing things from your past head on, whether they're good or bad. When I was a kid, Timon and Pumbaa were my favourite characters because they worked on that kid level. But as an adult, I actually appreciate Simba more and what he has to deal with over the course of the movie. And that's why the movie works on so many levels.
One thing that I picked up during last night's viewing is that Scar wasn't originally going to kill Mufasa. Up until last night I thought that Scar planned to get rid of Simba and then kill Mufasa. But that's not the case. When the Hyenas capture Simba, Nala and Zazu in the Elephant Graveyard, they were going to kill Simba for Scar, since Simba was the roadblock to Scar becoming the King of Pride Rock, and Mufasa was going to die eventually, and then Scar would ascend to the throne. But, since the Hyenas failed to kill Simba because Mufasa was there to save him, Scar realized that in order to get rid of Simba, he had to get rid of Mufasa first, and that's where he hatched his plan with the Hyenas with the Wildebeast stampede in the gorge. So I thought that was interesting. Also just before Scar throws him off the cliff, there's a look on Mufasa's face that indicates that he realized what Scar's intentions really were.
The music and songs are probably some of the most fun and catchy pieces of music in any Disney movie. From "The Circle of Life" to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", every song is a hit with "Be Prepared" being the creepiest Disney Villain song ever created. This movie is the first Disney movie where a popular artist is actively involved in the creation of the songs. While Celine Dion sang the title song for Beauty and the Beast, she didn't actively work with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken to write the songs for the movie. Whereas Elton John did. Later on Phil Collins would write the songs for Tarzan in 1999 and Brother Bear in 2003. And I actually think that's it as Mandy Moore didn't write any of the songs for Tangled and Disney didn't do any animated musicals for most of the 2000s. Though Barry Manilow did write a song for Oliver & Company in 1988.
The Lion King is one of the few movies, Disney or non-Disney, that I got to see in theatres when I was a kid. I don't even remember why my mom decided to take my brother, sister and I to go see it in the first place, I just remember it was the summer of 1994, school was starting in a few weeks, and it was nice for the four of us to go see it. I think mom took us to see it because my sister was starting Kindergarten, I was going into grade 2, but at a brand new school (I talked about this in a recent Living with Disabilities post), and my brother was still going to be home with my mom since he wouldn't start school until the fall of 1995. I remember we sang "Hakuna Matata" in the car on the way home.
I think of all the Disney movies The Lion King is the one we had the most merchandise from. We had the movie on VHS, we had the soundtrack on CD at my grandparents's house, we had a Simba cake topper, and we each had this little Pride Rock that opened to reveal a mini-playset and mini-figures of Mufasa, Simba, and Nala, kind of like the Polly Pocket sets that were popular in the '90s. I didn't remember if it was a retail thing or something that McDonald's put out in a Happy Meal, but I looked it up and it's a retail thing, that we probably got at like Toys R Us or K-Mart. I just remember that my brother, my sister and I each had one. I actually still have mine on a shelf in my bedroom, minus the Mufasa and Simba figures (Nala is still there for some reason).
The movie was huge for a year after it's release. When I started at Greely Elementary School three things were popular: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, The Lion King, and Batman Forever. Of course The Lion King had come out that summer so the merchandise was still everywhere. MMPR was just entering it's second season and I think the movie had just been announced so Power Rangers was still huge, and even though Batman Forever wasn't coming out until June 1995, the small amount of merchandise for the film that came out prior to the film's release was starting to trickle out enough that kids already had backpacks and lunch bags with Batman and Robin on them. Which helped me get to know the new kids I was meeting at school. And it was the last animated Disney movie to be so huge since Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules didn't get near that level of success. The next movie that did was Toy Story a year and a half later.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, The Lion King is a fantastic movie. It's funny, it's action packed it's heartwarming and it's nostalgic. I watched it on VHS last night and I had a lot of fun watching it on that format. I haven't seen the 2019 live action remake yet but despite hearing not so good things about it, I'm still planning on watching it on Disney+ at some point. I'm giving The Lion King 10/10 stars.
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